Donald Trump said on Wednesday that it was “extremely hard” to reach a deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but the EU touted progress in its own trade talks with Washington even though the US president doubled global metal tariffs. Trump’s latest trade moves came as ministers from Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries gathered in Paris to discuss the outlook fo
A day after its decision to reduce power tariffs to provide relief in electricity bills, the Punjab government on Wednesday said the relief will be financed with billions in profits hitherto harvested by two government-owned power companies, the Quaid-e-Azam Thermal Power Private Limited and Punjab Thermal Power Private Limited. The provincial cabinet had decided to cut the power tariffs of the
Merchandise exports decreased by 10 per cent in May, continuing the negative trend for the current fiscal year, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. The growth in export proceeds began to decelerate in October, and the pace progressively slowed in the months that followed, eventually shrinking by 5.57pc in February, 8.93pc in April, and 10.07pc in May. Export growth returned in
Punjab agriculture authorities are hopeful that taxes on local cotton will be withdrawn in the next budget to provide it a level playing field. Punjab Agriculture Minister Syed Ashiq Kirmani told a delegation of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association on Wednesday that Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has carried the demand of abolishing taxes on local cotton to the pre-budget meeting of all chief m
Fuelled by a 22pc increase in provincial allocations, the National Economic Council (NEC) on Wednesday approved with consensus a record Rs4.22 trillion national development outlay for the next fiscal year to upgrade growth rate to 4.2pc from 2.7 this year, despite an IMF-decreed 29pc cut in the public sector development programme (PSDP) compared to the current year. The provincial expansionary